Chiefs’ pay mainly from band revenue

In the summer of 2011, as issues of disclosure and transparency made front -page sensational news across Canada, the accountability of the Atlantic First Nations Chiefs’ leadership to their people and to the broader community, was of paramount importance.

The Atlantic chiefs took a proactive approach to research and help determine the rates of compensation, based on an objective assessment of their jobs. Our organization, the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs, engaged the HayGroup, an internationally recognized firm with expertise in research and benchmarking employment compensation in public and private sectors. It was a first-ever study by a First Nations community in Canada.

The study concluded that all First Nation leaders in Atlantic Canada were below the recommended salary compensation identified. Other study highlights noted that our First Nation chiefs generally donate up to 25 per cent of their own personal income to support individual band members in their times of need. If this flow-through of income were quantified, the positioning of the band chiefs would weaken even more against comparator markets.

The HayGroup provided recommendations on the possible levels of compensation for our elected leaders, based on clear identification of job responsibilities, size of community, and other measurable benchmarks. From the study, a template job description was developed and shared with all member communities for their consideration. A complete copy of the study and findings was made public and provided to all First Nations leaders and councils for consideration and followup action. The study is still posted on our website: www.apcfnc.ca.

The First Nations Accountability and Transparency Act, imposed on First Nations by the federal government, is now law and has been since April 2013. These new efforts of accountability and disclosure now make it a requirement, by law, for all First Nations leaders to ensure information on compensation for all elected chief and councils in Canada is made public. This means that all Canadians, not only First Nations, will have access to see levels of compensation and benefits for elected leaders.

An important issue that has been neglected in all disclosures is that funding for the majority of First Nation leaders does not come from taxpayer funding nor the federal financial contributions provided to First Nations communities. In the majority of cases, funding spent to cover the costs of governance and compensation of chiefs and councils is secured through other First Nation own-source revenues, such as commercial fishery, retail gasoline sales, and so on. The Band Support Funding Program, which is formula-based, is how the federal government has funded First Nations to cover the costs of governance and compensation of the chiefs and councils. This funding has been capped by the federal government at a fixed funding amount for at least the past 10 years. Ottawa has imposed this cap with no consideration of the increase in the First Nations membership, the rising cost of living; let alone the ever-changing responsibilities of the First Nation elected officials. It’s hard to imagine any organization — government or private — that can sustain a 10-plus-year freeze.

Unless thoughtful people take the time to review and do the required detailed analysis of the audited financial statements for First Nations, this issue will be clearly misunderstood by media and others who wish to be critical of First Nations leadership. At APCFNC, we welcome the opportunity to help explain any of this publicly available information.

Chiefs in our region have been working hard, collectively and within their own communities, to provide leadership and approaches that offer transparency, good governance and accountability. Such negative incorrect characterizations of First Nations leaders, as have appeared in recent news articles, only lead to greater disparity, misunderstanding and harmful hostility among Canadians, which does not protect or build the future of Canada that we ALL want.

John G. Paul is executive director of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs, which develops culturally relevant alternatives to federal policy for 37 Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Innu communities and peoples.